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The  One  Hundred  and  One  County 

Jails  of  Illinois  and  Why  They 

Ought  to  be  Abolished 


-By 

EDITH  ABBOTT 

Chairman,  Committee  on  Crime  of  the  Illinois 

State  Conference  of  Charities 

Alton,  1916 


ISSUED  BY 


THE  JUVENILE  PROTECTIVE  ASSOCIATION 
OF  CHICAGO 


1916 


The  One  Hundred  and  One  County  Jails  of  Illinois 
and  Why  They  Ought  to  be  Abolished 


^(•^^"^^IIE  only  way  to  solve  the  county  jail  problem  is  to  abolish  the 

M    ^^  county  jails.     It  is  folly  to  hope  that  any  attempt  to  reform 

^^^^  the  county  jaiLs  of  Illinois  or  of  any  other  state  can  be  even 

measurably  successful.    One  attempt  after  another  has  failed  in  the  pnst, 

and  similar  efforts  will  fail  in  the  future. 

In  the  year  1870,  the  then  newly  created  Illinois  State  Board  of 
Charities  made  a  survey  of  our  county  jails;  and  to  improve  the  horrible 
conditions  then  found,  a  "new  jail  law"  was  passed  in  1874.  This  law, 
which  was  passed  forty-two  years  ago  has  not  only  never  been  amended 
but  it  has  never  been  enforced.  The  very  thorough  survey  that  was  made 
last  year  by  the  present  State  Charities  Commission  brought  to  light 
abuses  as  serious  as  those  that  were  found  in  1870.  The  provisions  of 
the  "new  jail  law  of  1874,"  which  required  that  the  jails  be  kept  sanitary 
and  clean  and  that  different  classes  of  prisoners  should  be  separated  (the 
men  and  the  women  kept  apart  and  young  prisoners  separated  "from 
notorious  offenders  and  those  convicted  of  a  felony  or  other  infamous 
crime"), — these  provisions  are  not  enforced  today  in  many  of  the 
counties  of  Illinois,  they  have  never  been  enforced,  and  it  is  entirely 
safe  to  predict  that  they  never  will  be  enforced.  The  long  and  costly 
lesson  of  experience  has  taught  us  that  any  humanitarian  legislation 
that  is  left  to  a  hundred  and  one  different  local  authorities  to  enforce 
will  simply  not  be  enforced. 

There  are  in  Illinois  precisely''  one  hundred  and  one  different  coun- 
ties outside  of  Cook  County.     That  means  that  there  are  precisely  one 
^hundred  and  one  different  local  authorities  that  must  be  brought  up  to 
.^*  an  adequate  understanding  of  the  county  jail  problem  before  any  reforms 
'<j  under  the  present  law  can  be  attempted.    It  means  more  than  this.   One 
•  hundred  and  one  different  local  authorities  must  be  educated  this  year; 
^j.  but  two  years  hence  a  new  set  of  officials  will  be  elected,  and  the  w'ork 
\  must  begin  all  over  again. 

Long  ago  the  English  government  learned  the  lesson  that  we  are 
still  studying.  In  England,  numerous  attempts  were  made  to  compel 
the  local  authorities  to  provide  decent  jaiLs.  None  of  these  attempts 
was  successful;  and,  finally,  more  than  half  a  centurj'  ago,  the  central 
government  solved  the  problem  by  taking  over  the  management  of  these 
institutions.  Much  more  recently  the  State  of  Indiana  learned  the  same 
lesson  and  by  providing  a  state  farm  for  misdemeanants  removed  all 
of  these  offenders  from  the  custody  of  the  county  authorities. 

1 


It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  Illinois  State  Legislature  decided 
more  than  forty  years  apro  that  this  was  a  matter  which  should  not  be 
left  to  the  county  authorities.  The  leuislature  when  it  passed  the  "new 
jail  law  of  1874"  took  the  stand  that  every  person  deprived  of  his 
liberty  in  the  state  of  Illinois  must  be  humanely  treated, — that  he  must 
not  be  confined  in  a  place  that  would  injure  him  either  physically  or 
morally.  Having  passed  this  law,  however,  the  state  legislature  of  1874, 
and  the  score  of  legislatures  that  have  met  since,  failed  to  do  anything 
to  secure  the  enforcement  of  the  provisions  that  were  designed  to  safe- 
guard the  health  and  morals  of  the  helpless  people  who  are  confined  in 
our  county  jails  each  year. 

Of  course,  all  the  counties  are  not  equally  culpable.  In  a  few, 
new  and  decent  jails  have  been  erected ;  and,  in  a  few  others,  new  plans 
have  been  made.  But  in  the  vast  majority,  there  is  nothing  but  indiffer- 
ence and  neglect  on  this  subject.  The  inspector  for  the  State  Board 
reported  that  the  records  of  county  expenditures  shoAved  that  large  sums 
were  expended  last  year  on  what  were  called  "jail  improvements." 
But  these  improvements  were  "not  new  plumbing  or  fresh  paint,  or  new 
bedding,  or  a  few  windows."  This  was  not  the  type  of  jail  improvement 
for  which  the  county  officials  were  walling  to  spend  their  money.  Instead 
of  this  the  "jail  improvements"  accounted  for  in  the  records  were  found 
by  the  state  inspector  to  be  "almost  invariably  a  new  porch  for  the 
sheriff,  a  new  garage  for  the  sheriff,  a  new  bathroom  for  the  sheriff,  or  a 
new  hardwood  floor  for  the  sheriff.  "With  the  exception  of  the  appropria- 
tions for  new  jails,  not  $5,000  was  expended  in  the  last  year  in  the  state 
of  Illinois  on  improvements  on  the  jail  proper.  A  good  many  thousands 
were  expended  on  the  sheriff's  residence,  but  not  on  the  dark  little  annex 
in  the  rear." 

The  state  inspector  goes  on  to  say,  "There  is  no  reason  why  the 
counties  should  not  expend  unlimited  sums  on  improvements  for  the 
sheriffs'  residences,  if  they  desire  to  do  so.  but  the  records  of  items  would 
be  less  misleading  if  they  were  credited  to  the  sheriff's  residence,  and 
not  to  the  jail." 

The  recent  survey  of  the  State  Board  of  Charities  shows  how  com- 
pletely the  "new  jail  law"  has  broken  down.  It  has  been  impossible  to 
compel  the  county  authorities  to  obey  the  provisions  of  this  law.  The 
"new  jail  law  of  1874"  has  been  "a  dead  letter"  for  more  than  forty 
years.  Some  extracts*  from  the  recent  jail  survey  of  the  State  Charities 
Commission  will  illustrate  the  indifference  of  our  country'  authorities  to 
the  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  State  to  compel  them  to  erect  and  maintain 


These  ars  verbatim  extracts  from  thft  In.stitution  Quarterly  issued  by  the 
State  Charities  Commission  and  the  State  Board  of  Administration.  The  iiispec- 
tions   were  made  by  Miss  Ilinrlchsen,  the  official  Inspector. 


sanitary  jail55  with  facilities  for  separating  the  different  classes  of 
prisoners. 

The  Adams  County  Jail,  inspected  July  28,  1915,  is  in  the  basement  of 
the  courthouse.  The  main  jail  room  is  44  by  68  feet  in  dimensions.  It  is 
lighted  by  windows  at  the  south  and  north  ends.  The  two  cell  blocks  con- 
tain fourteen  cells  each.  The  cells  of  each  block  are  placed  back  to  back. 
No  air  can  circulate  through  them  as  the  solid  stone  walls  shut  off  even  the 
small  amount  that  enters  through  the  north  and  south  windows.  Each  cell 
contains  a  toilet  and  two  bunks.  The  cells  are  very  dark.  Neither  air  nor 
light  can  enter  them. 

The  jail  is  dark,  insanitary  and  ill-ventilated.  Separation  of  different 
classes  of  prisoners  is  impossible. 

Alexander  County  Jail,  inspected  April  23,  1915,  confines  its  prisoners 
in  a  dungeon  in  the  courthouse  basement.  So  dark  is  the  place  that  electric 
lights  must  burn  all  day.  The  main  prison  is  a  small  room,  dark,  damp, 
ill-smelling.  The  cage  has  four  cells,  two  on  each  side  of  a  latticed  corridor. 
The  air  was  heavy  with  the  exhalations  of  fourteen  pairs  of  lungs  and  reeked 
with  the  odors  of  crowded,  unwashed  bodies. 

Fourteen  men  were  crowded  in  a  space  where  there  was  not  enough 
oxygen  for  one.  The  electric  lights  do  not  light  the  cells  but  shine  dimly 
in  the  cage.  The  men's  faces  are  almost  indistinguishable,  except  when 
directly  beneath  the  lights. 

Buckets  and  toilets  provide  the  only  sanitary  facilities  and  they  are 
utterly  inadequate.  No  bathtubs  are  provided.  The  county  furnishes  towels 
and  soap  but  no  changes  of  underwear.  A  prisoner  cannot  be  required  to 
bathe  and  change  when  admitted,  because  there  are  no  tubs  and  no  clothes. 
He  and  all  the  vermin  and  disease  he  may  bring  with  him  are  thrown  into 
a  cage  with  a  dozen  or  more  other  prisoners — clean,  dirty,  healthy  or  dis- 
eased— there  to  remain  in  darkness  and  dampness  for  weeks  and  months. 
The  men  are  kept  herded  in  the  cage  all  the  time,  as  the  walls  of  the  rooms 
are  not  strong  enough  to  hold  them. 

The  fourteen  men  in  the  cage  were  all  awaiting  trial.  They  were  pre- 
sumably innocent  men.  They  are  herded  into  a  pen  not  fit  for  the  lowest 
beasts,  deprived  of  light,  air  and  the  ordinary  decencies  of  the  body. 

This  jail  has  been  condemned  for  many  years.  It  is  not  only  a  disgrace 
to  the  humanity  of  a  county,  but  it  is  a  positive  menace  to  public  health. 
The  entire  building  is  made  insanitary  by  the  crowding  together  in  the  base- 
ment of  all  kinds  and  conditions  of  men,  in  every  stage  of  health  or  disease, 
without  air  or  light  or  decent  toilet  facilities. 

The  Bond  County  Jail,  inspected  May  29,  1915,  is  a  large,  dark,  damp, 
insanitary  room,     ... 

The  main  prison  room  is  dimly  lighted  by  two  windows  at  each  of  two 
sides  and  one  -window  on  a  third  side.  The  windows  are  barred,  both  inside 
and  out,  and  cannot  be  opened.  No  fresh  air  can  enter  this  room,  and  as 
the  windows  cannot  be  washed,  the  light  is  shut  out.  The  walls  and  floor 
are  very  damp. 

The  cage  has  four  cells,  two  on  each  side  of  a  small  corridor.  The  cell 
doors  are  latticed  and  the  backs  of  the  cells  are  latticed.  There  is  a  toilet 
and  a  stand  in  the  cage  corridor.  The  plumbing  was  out  of  order  and  the 
floor  around  the  toilet  was  wet. 

The  jail  is  heated  by  an  old  stove  and  is  lighted  by  electricity.  There 
is  no  tub  except  a  metal  laundry  tub,  which  is  brought  in  when  the  prisoners 
wish  to  bathe. 

The  Brown  Coiuity  Jail,  inspected  May  14,   1915,      .      .  is  so  dark 

and  damp  that  it  is  not  safe  to  confine  anyone  in  it.  No  arrangements  are 
made  for  separating  different  classes  of  prisoners.  With  several  prisoners 
in  this  jail  it  would  be  absolutely  insanitary.  Children  and  minors  are  con- 
fined with  other  prisoners. 

The  Bui-eau   County  Jail,   inspected    September    3,    1915,    is   two   large 

3 


rooms  in  the  rear  of  the  sheriff's  residence.  The  building  is  across  the  street 
from  the  court  house. 

The  women's  section  is  next  to  the  jail  office  and  north  of  the  men's 
room.  It  contains  four  cells  on  the  first  floor  and  four  cells  on  the  second 
floor,  opening  upon  a  balcony.  The  two  floors  are  one  room.  Each  cell  is  a 
small  room  with  an  outside  window.  There  is  a  toilet  and  stand  in  each. 
In  one  there  is  a  bathtub.     The  cots  have  mattresses  and  blankets. 

The  second  tier  is  nominally  for  minors  and  children.  There  were  ten 
women  prisoners  in  the  room  on  the  day  of  inspection.  The  one  minor  was 
in  the  men's  section. 

The  women's  room  and  cells  were  clean,  light  and  well  ventilated.  The 
men's  section  contains  a  two-tier  cage.  The  room  has  six  windows  on  each 
of  two  sides.  On  the  first  tier,  the  eight  cells  and  the  bath  cells  are  latticed. 
On  the  second  tier,  the  backs  of  the  cells  are  barred.  Iron  cots  are  used  on 
the  first  tier  and  canvas  hammocks  on  the  second.  There  is  no  bath  cell  on 
the  second  tier. 

The  men  are  not  locked  in  the  cages,  but  are  given  the  liberty  of  the 
jail  room.  Separation  of  different  classes  of  prisoners  is  impossible.  There 
were  twenty-six  men  in  the  jail  room  at  the  time  of  inspection.  The  room 
has  sufficient  air  for  half  that  number. 

In  the  Calhoun  County  Jail,  inspected  June  15,  1915,  there  is  one  room 
on  the  first  floor  and  two  on  the  second.  The  first  floor  room  contains  a 
latticed  cage  with  three  cells  and  a  corridor.  The  cage  is  so  placed  that  no 
air  from  the  windows  can  enter  it.  The  iron  is  painted  black.  The  room 
and  cage  are  very  dark,  damp  and  insanitary.  There  is  no  running  water. 
A  stove  heats  the  room. 

One  man  had  been  held  for  trial  for  a  year  in  the  jail  and  had  been 
released  a  few  days  before.  .  .  .  The  place  is  entirely  unfit  for  the  care 
of  human  beings. 

The  Carroll  County  Jail,  inspected  August  31,  1915,  makes  no  provision 
for  the  separation  of  men  and  women  prisoners.  At  the  time  of  inspection 
one  woman  and  three  men  were  occupying  the  same  room.  ...  If  the 
insane  or  children  are  brought  to  the  jail  they,  too,  must  be  placed  in  this 
one  large  room. 

The  Cass  Coiuity  Jail,  inspected  July  7,  1915,  is  a  one-room  stone  annex 
to  the  sheriff's  brick  residence.  The  jail  room  contains  a  two-tier,  twelve- 
cell  stone  cage.  There  are  six  small  windows  on  each  side  of  the  room.  The 
jail  is  dark,  ill-ventilated  and  insanitary. 

The  cells  are  very  small  and  have  barred  doors.  They  are  dark  and  no 
air  can  enter  them.  Each  has  two  iron  wall  cots  with  mattresses  and 
blankets  and  a  ventilated  box  for  a  night  bucket.  .  .  .  This  jail  is  so 
dark  and  ill  ventilated  as  to  be  an  unsafe  place  to  hold  prisoners.  It  is  said 
to  be  one  of  the  strongest  jails  in  the  State,  one  of  the  few  from  which 
prisoners  cannot  escape.  Separation  of  the  different  classes  of  prisoners  is 
impossible.     Only  one  woman  can  be  held  in  the  women's  section. 

In  the  Chi'istian  Coimty  Jail,  inspected  June  23,  1915,  the  jail  rooms 
are  on  the  second  floor  of  the  sheriff's  handsome  residence.  The  east,  or 
newly  remodeled  old  section,  is  a  large  room  containing  two  cages,  one  for 
men  and  one  for  women.  'The  cages  are  on  opposite  sides  and  a  meager 
pretense  of  separation  is  offered  in  the  shape  of  a  sheet-iron  screen  six  feet 
high  extending  part  way  across  the  room  between  the  two  cages.  It  is  true 
that  this  screen  does  separate  parts  of  the  cages,  but  it  does  not  interfere 
with  unlimited  conversation  back  and  forth  between  the  two  cages. 

There  is  a  bathtub  in  the  jail  room,  but  there  is  not  even  a  screen 
around  it.     It  is  in  plain  sight  of  all  the  occupants  of  the  cage. 

The  lack  of  proper  separation  of  men  and  women  prisoners  makes  the 
newly  remodeled  old  part  of  the  jail  unfit  for  use,  unless  either  one  sex  or 
the  other  alone  occupy  it.  The  bathing  facilities  are  not  good  and  half  of 
the  cells  are  too  dark  for  use.  The  wood  floors  and  ceilings  make  the  jail 
unsafe. 

4 


The  Clark  County  Jail,  inspected  June  3,  1915,  is  a  small  brick  build- 
ing connected  by  a  covered  passage  with  the  sheriff's  handsome  new  two- 
story  brick  residence. 

The  jail  is  dark  and  damp  and  there  are  no  free  air  currents.  Iron 
slats  across  the  lower  part  of  the  windows  shut  off  air  and  light;  the  upper 
tier  is  darker  and  more  insanitary  than  the  lower  one. 

The  Clinton  County  Jail,  inspected  May  19,  1915.  .  .  .  It  is  impos- 
sible to  separate  different  classes  of  prisoners. 

The  Cumberland  County  Jail,  inspected  June  1,  1915.  .  .  .  Separa^ 
tlon  of  different  classes  of  prisoners  is  not  possible. 

In  the  Douglas  County  Jail,  inspected  July  3,  1915,  the  first  floor  jail 
room  contains  a  cage  which  has  four  cells  and  a  corridor.  Two  little  win- 
dows on  each  of  two  sides  let  in  only  a  very  small  amount  of  air  and  light. 
Even  in  the  middle  of  the  day  the  electric  light  burns.  The  windows  were 
open,  but  the  air  was  heavy  and  stale.  In  the  corridor  are  the  toilet  and 
stand. 

So  little  light  and  air  can  enter  this  jail  that  is  is  not  a  fit  place  to  hoM 
men  and  women.  The  law  requiring  the  separation  of  minors  from  older 
offenders  cannot  be  enforced.  At  the  time  of  inspection  a  boy  of  15  and  one 
of  18  were  held  in  the  same  room  with  six  older  offenders.  There  was  no 
room  for  them  anywhere  else.  The  women's  quarters  are  not  large  enough 
for  one  woman,  but  the  one  small  cell  is  the  only  place  where  women  can 
be  confined.  This  jail  has  been  condemned  as  unfit  for  use.  Recently  a 
motion  for  a  new  jail  was  introduced  at  a  meeting  of  the  county  board. 
The  motion  received  but  two  favorable  votes,  that  of  the  man  who  introduced 
it  and  of  the  man  who  seconded  it. 

Edgar  County  Jail,  inspected  July  14,  1915,  confines  white  women  in 
the  same  room  with  negro  men  in  the  county  jail.  Only  two  jail  rooms  are 
provided  for  prisoners.  In  one  the  cage  is  partitioned.  In  the  other  it  is 
not.  When  one  room  becomes  crowded  with  men  the  prisoners  must  be 
taken  to  the  other  room  and  placed  in  the  same  cage  with  the  women.  The 
partition  in  the  middle  of  the  latticed  cage  is  the  only  attempt  at  separation 
of  the  sexes.  On  the  other  three  sides,  the  sections  of  the  cage  are  latticed 
and  the  prisoners  of  the  two  sections  can  converse  freely,  and  every  sound 
in  one  section  can  be  distinctly  heard  in  the  other. 

On  the  second  fioor  the  jail  room  is  like  the  one  on  the  first,  except  that 
a  partition  has  been  put  in  the  cage  corridor.  At  the  time  of  inspection 
there  were  three  negro  men  in  one  side  of  the  cage  and  a  white  woman  in 
the  other.  The  first-floor  room  was  crowded  with  men,  and  the  sheriff  had 
been  compelled  to  resort  to  the  present  arrangement.  There  are  no  rooms 
for  women,  none  for  children  and  none  for  the  insane.  The  law  requiring 
the  separation  of  men  and  women,  minors  from  older  offenders,  and  persons 
charged  with  infamous  crimes  from  those  charged  with  crimes  not  infamous, 
cannot  be  complied  with. 

An  addition  should  be  built  to  this  jail.  The  present  arrangement  is  a 
violation  of  the  laws  of  State  and  morality.  Until  quarters  are  built  for 
women  and  minors,  it  will  be  necessary  for  the  sheriff  to  confine  men,  women, 
children,  minors,  old  offenders  and  the  insane  in  the  same  room. 

Edwards  County  Jail,  inspected  April  10,  1915,  The  jail  is  not  properly 
equipped  for  the  care  of  prisoners.  There  are  no  means  of  separation  of 
different  classes  of  prisoners. 

The  Fayette  County  Jail,  inspected  May  29,  1915,  is  dark,  ill-venti- 
lated, vile-smelling  and  insanitary.  The  prison  room  is  dimly  lighted  by 
three  small  windows  high  in  the  wall  on  two  sides.  The  cage  is  in  two  tiers. 
Each  tier  contains  four  cells  and  two  corridors.  The  cells  are  very  dark. 
The  doors  are  latticed  and  there  is  a  latticed  cell  window  opposite  each  door. 
But  the  windows  of  the  room  are  so  placed  that  neither  light  nor  air  falls 
through  the  latticing  into  the  cells.  Neither  light  nor  fresh  air  can  enter 
the  cells  and  the  odors  are  very  foul. 

Each  cage  corridor  on  the  first  tier  contains  a  toilet  and  a  stand,  both 


in  a  state  of  dilapidation.  There  is  a  bathtub  in  the  prison  room.  A  bath 
taken  in  this  tub  would  be  a  public  performance  for  the  jail  inmates. 

An  iron  stairway  leads  to  the  second  tier.  This  tier  is  a  trifle  better 
ventilated  than  the  lower  one,  as  the  small  windows  send  a  little  air  into 
the  cage.     There  are  no  toilet  facilities  on  this  tier. 

There  are  no  arrangements  for  separation  of  sexes  or  different  classes 
of  prisoners.  The  jail  is  dark  and  insanitary  and  entirely  unfit  for  human 
beings.     It  was  as  clean  as  so  wretched  a  place  could  be. 

Ford  County  Jail,  inspected  July  23,  1915.  .  The  room  is  dark 

and  the  air  cannot  circulate  freely  through  the  cells. 

On  the  second  floor  the  main  jail  room  is  like  the  one  on  the  first  floor. 
There  is  one  dark  cell  in  the  general  room  on  the  second  floor. 

There  were  five  men  in  the  jail. 

The  jail  is  too  dark  and  ill-ventilated  to  be  sanitary. 

Franklin  County  Jail,  inspected  April  30,  1915.  This  jail  is  a  whitened 
sepulchre.  According  to  the  report  of  the  inspector  it  was  built  ten  years 
ago  and  the  exterior  of  it  is  that  of  a  handsome,  two-story  brick  residence," 
but  within  it  "was  so  dirty  as  to  be  an  unfit  place  for  human  beings.  The 
windows  were  hea^T  with  dirt,  the  floors  were  covered  with  all  kinds  of 
refuse.     .  .     The  toilets  were  filthy,  the  drains  were  clogged. 

The  prisoners  had  been  without  soap  for  three  days.  There  was  one 
t-owel  for  a  cage  of  men. 

The  mattresses  were  on  the  floor.  .  .  .  The  bedding  was  worn  and 
very  filthy.  .  .  .  The  bathroom  was  full  of  dirty  rags,  old  brooms  and 
a  torn  and  filthy  mattress. 

The  women's  section  was  a  small  two-cell  cage  so  dark  that  it  was 
diflftcult  to  see  what  furnishings  were  in  it  and  so  dirty  as  to  be  unfit  for 
occupancy.  The  odor  was  disgusting.  No  sunlight  and  no  air  enter  this 
room. 

On  the  second  floor  the  main  prison  and  the  insane  cage  are  similar  to 
the  main  prison  and  the  women's  room  of  the  first  floor.  The  Insane  cage 
was  disgustingly  dirty,  vile-smelling  and  very  dark.  An  insane  man  had  been 
kept  there  through  the  previous  night.  The  place  was  unfit  for  an  animal. 
A  small  room  intended  for  a  hospital  room  was  packed  with  lumber. 

The  Fulton  Coimty  Jail,  inspected  August  28,  1915,  is  a  two-story  stone 
annex  to  the  sheriff's  brick  residence. 

The  main  room  on  the  first  floor  contains  three  small  windows  on  each 
of  two  sides.  The  windows  are  out  of  proportion  to  the  thick  stone  walls 
and  are  little  better  than  slits.  No  sunlight  and  very  little  air  can  enter. 
Oiie  window  is  darkened  by  the  covered  cellai-way  outside. 

The  gray  cage  contains  six  cells  and  a  corridor.  In  each  cell  are  four 
steel  wall  cots  with  mattresses  and  blankets.  There  is  an  electric  light  in 
each  cell. 

The  cells  are  very  dark.  The  air  was  stale  and  hea^'y  with  odors.  The 
mattresses  and  blankets  were  old  and  discolored.  The  floors  were  damp. 
The  end  of  the  cage  farthest  from  the  entrance  was  so  dark  that  the  fixtures 
could  not  be  seen  without  lights.  A  garbage  basket  half  full  of  refuse  added 
several  more  sickening  odors  to  the  heavy  atmosphere.     The  men  complained 

that  the  night  odors   are   especially  bad There  were   thirteen 

prisoners  in  the  jail  at  the  time  of  inspection.  Separation  of  different  classes 
of  prisoners  is  impossible. 

This  jail  should  be  either  abandoned  or  made  sanitary.  It  is  too  dark, 
damp  and  ill  ventilated  a  place  in  which  to  confine  men  and  women.  As  no 
separation  of  different  classes  of  prisoners  is  possible,  the  young  offenders 
have  every  opportunity  of  taking  lessons  in  all  manners  of  vice  from  the 
older  prisoners. 

The  GaUatin   Coiuity  Jail,   inspected    April    15,    1915,    was   built   before 
Illinois  became  a  State  and  it  is  as  primitive  as  it  was  100  years  ago. 
It  is  a  log  cabin  whose  outer  walls  have  been  covered  with  brick. 

To  enter  the  main  room,  one  must  crawl  through  a  hole  about  four 
feet  square  cut  in  the  thick  log  walls.  A  block  of  wood  forms  a  hea\T  door 
for  this  hole. 

6 


The  windows  are  two,  barred,  narrow  slits  in  the  front  wall.  The  entire 
interior  is  of  wood.  At  one  end  of  the  room  is  a  small  cell  with  a  covered, 
ventilated,  vile-smelling  box.  Connected  with  this  room  by  a  hole,  a  small 
slit  high  in  the  wall,  similar  to  the  one  by  which  the  main  room  is  entered, 
is  a  small  cell.  On  the  floor  of  the  cell,  is  a  straw  mattress.  At  the  opposite 
end  of  the  long  room,  is  another  small  cell  entered  by  a  hole  in  the  wall 
and  lighted  by  a  small  window  slit.  It  contains  a  cot  and  a  mattress  on  the 
floor. 

In  the  men's  prison  at  the  time  of  inspection  were  four  men,  all  using 
the  same  towel  and  washing  in  the  same  tin  pan. 

The  women's  prison  on  the  first  floor  is  a  large,  filthy,  vile-smelling 
room.  The  plaster  is  falling  from  the  ceiling  and  walls.  There  is  a  double 
wooden  bed  in  one  corner,  a  straw  pallet  on  the  floor  in  another. 

There  were  four  women  in  this  room.  The  only  toilet  facilities  were  a 
small  tin  cooking  pan  and  two  buckets. 

The  Greene  County  Jail,  inspected  June  17,  1915.  This  jail  is  entirely 
inadequate  in  every  way.  It  is  too  small  to  allow  separation  of  different 
classes  of  prisoners.  The  women's  section  is  too  small  for  even  one  woman. 
The  location  of  the  bathroom  is  indecent. 

The  Grundy  Coimty  Jail,  inspected  August  14,  1915.  The  men's  room 
is  lighted  by  five  small  windows. 

The  room  contains  a  two-tier  stone  cell  block.  In  this  cell  block  are 
twelve  small,  dark  caves.  The  corridor  around  the  cell  block  was  so  dark 
than  an  electric  torch  was  used  for  the  inspection.  The  caves  were  so  dark 
as  to  be  merely  black  shadows  against  the  whitewashed  stone  of  the  block. 

The  sunlight  does  not  enter  the  jail  room.  The  only  light  comes  from 
candles  and  from  small  kerosene  lamps.  In  several  of  the  caves  there  were 
bits  of  candles.  In  the  corridor  were  small  lamps,  their  chimneys  so  black- 
ened that  only  a  dim  glimmer  came  through  the  soot. 

There  were  eight  persons  at  the  time  of  inspection.  Seven  were  confined 
in  the  main  room.  .  .  .  No  separation  according  to  age  or  class  of  crime 
can  be  made.     There  was  one  minor. 

The  jail  is  so  dark,  damp,  wretchedly  ventilated,  dirty  and  verminous 
as  to  be  an  unfit  place  in  which  to  confine  human  beings.  The  lack  of  any 
means  of  separation  of  the  different  classes  of  prisoners  makes  it  a  constant 
offense  against  the  State  law.  The  darkness,  dampness,  dirt  and  insanitation 
make  it  dangerous  to  the  health  of  the  persons  confined  in  it. 

The  Hamilton  County  Jail,  inspected  April  13,  is  one  room  on  the 
first  floor  of  a  two-story  brick  building.  .  .  .  The  jail  was  built  in  1857. 
Little  has  been  done  to  it  since  that  time. 

The  jail  is  a  room  10  by  12  feet  with  two  very  dark  cells  on  two 
sides.  There  is  one  window  in  the  room.  The  door  is  iron  and  is  kept  closed. 
During  the  day  the  window  is  open  but  after  supper  the  iron  shutters  are 
closed  and  locked. 

No  more  inhuman,  indecent  jail  torture  could  be  inflicted  than  the 
imprisoning  of  men  in  this  small  space  where  no  air  can  possibly  come.  The 
odors  are  loathsome.  The  men  suffer  horribly  at  night.  The  day-light  is 
shut  out  at  six  o'clock.  The  men  must  either  sit  in  darkness  or  make  their 
cage  still  more  hideous  by  burning  a  coal  oil  lamp. 

For  12  hours  out  of  the  24,  four  men  are  confined  in  one  small 
cage  into  which  not  a  breath  of  outside  air  can  penetrate.  Iron  shutters 
seal  the  one  window  and  a  solid  sheet  of  iron  seals  the  door.  The  only 
toilet  facilities  are  buckets.  If  the  prisoners  have  a  lamp  between  six  in  the 
evening  and  six  in  the  morning,  the  supply  of  oxygen  is  even  more  depleted. 

Of  the  four  prisoners  two  are  awaiting  trial.  .  .  .  One  will  be 
tried  in  August  and  one  in  September.  Three  of  these  men  will  probably 
spend  the  entire  summer  in  this  horrible  place.  Their  sufferings  through 
the  hot  days  will  be  the  most  cruel  torture. 

The  only  bathing  facilities  are  a  small  tin  basin. 

This  jail  is  a  disgrace  to  the  county  and  to  the  state.     It  is  a  disgrace 


to  the  grand  jury  who  sit  in  the  room  above  it  and  whose  duty  it  is  to  inspect 
it  and  report  its  condition.     It  is  a  disgrace  to  the  supervisors  of  the  county. 

Hancock  County  Jail,  inspected  July  30,  1915,  is  a  stone  building  in  the 
rear  of  the  sheriff's  residence  on  the  public  square  of  Carthage.  The 
rooms  and  cells  used  for  women,  minors,  and  city  prisoners,  are  unfit  for 
any  purpose.  They  are  not  sufficiently  separated  from  the  main  jail  room 
to  be  used  for  either  women  or  minors,  and  the  lack  of  privacy  of  any  sort 
makes  them  practically  useless.  ...  At  the  last  session  of  the  grand 
jury,  recommendations  were  made  that  the  plumbing  system  be  put  in 
better  order  and  that  three  new  cells  be  built.  Both  recommendations 
should  be  carried  out  by  the  county  board.  The  one  bathtub  is  utterly 
unfit  for  use.  There  should  be  more  cells  or  an  addition  to  the  jail.  With 
the  small  quarters,  it  is  impossible  for  the  sheriff  to  separate  the  prisoners 
according  to  the  provisions  of  the  law. 

The  Hardin  County  Jail,  inspected  April  21,  1915,  is  a  small,  one-story 
brick  building  in  the  rear  of  the  courthouse.  It  contains  one  room,  about 
twenty  feet  square,  which  is  the  main  prison,  a  small  cell  for  women  and  a 
tiny  entrance  hall. 

The  main  prison  contains  a  cage  12  by  14  feet  with  two  cells  7%  by  7 
feet  and  a  narrow  corridor.  Each  cell  has  a  barred  back  and  a  latticed  door. 
The  room  has  two  windows  on  each  side. 

Each  cell  has  a  ventilated  box  but  these  are  not  used. 

In  the  cage  corridor  is  a  toilet.  The  water  for  flushing  must  be  carried 
to  it.  The  toilet  was  packed  around  with  lime.  A  tin  washbasin  provided 
the  only  bathing  facilities. 

It  is  not  possible  to  separate  minors  from  older  offenders  nor  prisoners 
charged  with  infamous  crimes  from  those  charged  with  crimes  not  infamous. 

The  Henderson  County  Jail  and  Almshouse,  inspected  July  31,  1915. 
By  a  special  act  of  the  Legislature  in  February,  1859,  Henderson  County  is 
permitted  to  maintain  a  combined  jail  and  almshouse. 

The  act  states  that  prisoners  may  be  confined  in  the  Henderson  County 
almshouse  until  a  suitable  jail  shall  be  provided.  Although  this  act  went 
Into  effect  5  6  years  ago,  there  is  as  yet  no  disposition  on  the  part  of  the 
Henderson  County  officials  to  abrogate  the  ancient  charter  and  adopt  a  more 
modern  and  humane  method  of  caring  for  their  dependents  and  delinquents. 

The  jail-room  in  the  basement  is     .      .      .     almost  level  with  the  ground. 

There  are  three  small  cells  and  a  bath  cell  set  in  a  stone  block.  The 
cells  are  very  dark.  .  .  .  The  cells  have  wall  cots  with  old  mattresses 
and  worn  comforts.  The  doors  of  the  cells  are  latticed.  The  floors  are  of 
wood. 

The  windows  are  barred  and  covered  with  perforated  sheets  of  iron. 

There  had  been  a  hea\'y  rain  the  night  before  and  the  water  had  run 
through  the  windows  into  the  jail-room.  This  happens  every  time  there  is 
rain  and  there  is  a  drain  pipe  especially  constructed  to  carry  away  the  water 
after  it  has  flooded  into  the  jail.  The  prisoners  say  they  get  up  on  chairs 
when  the  rain  begins  to  fall.  At  the  time  of  inspection  the  floor  was  very 
damp.  As  no  sunlight  reaches  the  jail  the  drying  out  process  is  a  slow  and 
incomplete  one. 

But  the  combining  of  the  jail  and  the  almshouse  is  very  far  from  being  a 
humane  procedure.  Almshouse  inmates  and  jail  prisoners  are  two  totally 
different  classes  and  should  not  be  cared  for  as  one  class.  The  sheriff  of 
the  county  should  not  be  expected  to  be  sheriff,  almshouse  superintendent, 
farm  manager  and  jailer. 

The  basement  jail  should  be  completely  abandoned.  It  is  not  safe  to 
hold  persons  in  a  cellar  under  any  circumstances  and  a  cellar  that  is  flooded 
with  water  every  time  it  rains  should  not  be  used  as  a  dwelling  place. 

The  lack  of  any  means  of  separation  of  the  different  classes  of  prisoners 
is  one  reason  why  this  jail  should  be  condemned  and  abandoned. 

Henry  County  Jail,  inspected  October  29,  1915.     The  jail  is  one  large 

8 


room.  A  row  of  small  windows  near  the  roof  is  the  only  means  of  admitting 
light  and  air. 

In  the  jail-room  is  a  two-tier,  stone,  cell  block  with  six  cells  on  each  side 
of  each  tier.  The  cells  are  dark.  No  air  enters  them.  Each  cell  has  a 
cot  with  mattress  and  blankets.  In  one  cell  is  a  toilet.  Night  buckets  are 
provided  for  the  cells. 

No  bathtub  is  provided  except  a  laundry  tub.  In  this  laundry  tub,  the 
men  wash  their  bodies  and  their  clothes.  Water  must  be  heated  in  another 
part  of  the  building. 

The  west  side  of  the  jail  was  occupied  by  10  men.  One  man  had  been 
discharged  from  the  army  on  account  of  a  diseased  condition  of  his 
lungs.  He  eats,  sleeps  and  mingles  constantly  with  the  other  men.  They 
bathe  in  the  same  tub.     They  wash  their  clothes  in  the  same  tub. 

The  women's  section  was  darker  than  the  men's  and  there  was  less 
air  in  it.  The  separation  of  sexes  is  inadequate.  There  is  a  window  between 
the  two  sections  through   which  the  men  and  women  may  converse   freely. 

No  separation  of  different  classes  of  prisoners  is  possible  and  no 
isolation  of  prisoners  with  communicable  diseases  can  be  made.  The  men 
are  exposed  to  physical  and  moral  contagion  every  hour  that  they  are  in 
this  prison. 

Physical  care  of  their  bodies  is  almost  an  impossibility  under  the 
present   arrangements. 

All  classes  of  prisoners,  old  offenders,  hardened  reprobates  and  first 
offenders,  must  be  herded  in  one  room.  From  moral  contagion  for  the  better 
class  of  prisoners,  there  is  no  protection. 

The  lack  of  adequate  facilities  for  separation  of  the  two  sexes  is  a 
condition  of  which  the  moral   aspect  needs  no  comment. 

The  jail  is  an  insanitary,  ill-ventilated  building,  admitting  of  no  separa- 
tion of  different  classes  of  prisoners,  of  no  separation  of  diseased  from  healthy 
persons,  of  an  entirely  inadequate  separation  of  men  from  women  and  lack- 
ing in  the  necessary  toilet  facilities. 

Jackson  County  Jail,  inspected  April  29,  1915.  The  cage  is  very  dark. 
The  cage  is  latticed  and  the  light  does  not  enter  freely.  The  air  passes 
through  the  cage  very  well  but  the  cells  are  so  dark  that  prisoners  can 
not  read  in  their  cells  in  the  daytime. 

There  is  no  method  of  separation  of  different  classes  of  prisoners.  The 
main  room  and  the  women's  section  are  the  only  places  of  confinement. 
Murderers,  burglars  and  bootleggers  are  all  placed  together  regardless  of 
the  State  law  that  requires  classification  according  to  crime  and  age. 

There  is  a  "kangaroo  court"  whose  sentences  are  carried  out  with 
lashes. 

Jefferson  County  Jail,  inspected  April  8,  1915.  The  Jefferson  County 
jail  is  dark,  wet,  dirty  and  full  of  smells.  It  is  situated  next  to  a  livery 
stable. 

It  was  built  about  40  years  ago  and  no  improvements  have  been 
added. 

The  floor  is  damp  and  the  walls  are  defaced  and  very  dirty.  There 
are  four  small  windows  near  the  ceiling  on  opposite  sides  of  the  room. 
The  room  is  so  dark  that  electric  lights  burn  all  day. 

There  are  four  latticed  cells  5  by  8  feet  in  each  tier.  They  are  so  dark 
that  the  interior  could  not  be  seen  without  lighted  matches.  They  were 
very  dirty.     On  the  cots  were  ragged  mattresses  and  worn,  dirty  blankets. 

In  one  corner  a  blanket,  hung  on  a  rope,  screened  an  open  toilet. 

The   only   bathing   facilities   are    tin  washtubs   for   which    the 
water   must   be  heated  on   an   old  stove. 

On  one  side  of  the  room  are  piled  old  cots  and  mattresses. 

Bedbugs  and  cockroaches  are  thick. 

There  is  a  "kangaroo  court"  and  its  rules  are  enforced  with  a  razor 
strop. 

Children  are  placed  in  the  main  prison  with  other  prisoners.  There  Is 
no  separation  according  to  age  or  degree  of  crime  charged.  There  is  no 
hospital  room.     Sick  persons  remain  in  their  cells. 


This  jail  should  be  condemned.  It  is  entirely  unfit  for  occupation  and 
is  so  antiquated  that  it  can  not  be  made  sanitary., 

Jersey  County  Jail,  inspected  June  14,  1915. 

The  main  prison  is  a  large  room  on  the  first  floor  with  a  two-tier  cell 
cage.     The  room  Is  dark  and  Ill-ventilated.      .      .  There  are  two  windows 

on  each  of  three  sides.  The  windows  are  very  small  in  proportion  to  the 
room.  There  is  so  much  solid  iron  in  the  cage  that  air  currents  can  not 
pass   through   the  room. 

Each  tier  of  the  cage  has  two  sections.  Each  section  contains  two  small 
cells  and  a  corridor.  The  doors  of  the  cells  are  latticed.  The  walls  are 
solid  iron.     Air  can  not  circulate   through  the  cells.  There  is  so 

little  air  in  the  main  prison  that  it  would  be  unsafe  for  health  to  place  more 
than  three  or  four  prisoners  in  this  section.  Separation  of  different  classes 
of  prisoners  is  impossible. 

The  Johnson  County  Jail,  inspected  April  27,  1915,  is  a  dilapidated  old 
brick  building.     .     .  The  main  prison     .      .      .     is  a  gloomy  room  with 

a  latticed  cage  17  by  18  feet.  The  cage  contains  four  cells,  two  on  each 
side  of  a  corridor.  The  cells  have  latticed  backs  and  doors.  Each  has  two 
ragged,  canvas  hammocks  and  ragged  quilts  and  blankets. 

In  the  corridor  is  a  toilet  in  which  the  water  does  not  run  freely  and 
a  faucet  from  which  water  runs  into  a  metal  laundry  tub.  The  water  supply 
is  very  low  and  the  greater  part  of  the  water  for  washing  must  be  carried. 

The  cells  are  dark. 

The  jail  is  lighted  by  coal  oil  lamps  and  heated  by  a  coal  stove. 

A  wooden  staircase  leads  to  the  women's  section  on  the  second  floor. 
This  is  a  single  steel  cage  with  two  windows  and  no  toilet  facilities. 

There  were  five  prisoners  in  the  jail  and  all  were  confined  in  the  main 
prison  without  regard  to  age  or  class  of  crime.  One  boy  of  nineteen  was 
with  the  older  men. 

There  are  no  facilities  for  separation  of  minors  from  adults  nor  of  the 
prisoners  charged  with  infamous  crimes  from  those  not  infamous.  The  jail 
is  old,  unsafe,  insanitary,  dark  and  ill-ventilated.  There  is  no  fire  protec- 
tion and  much  of  the  interior  is  of  wood.  The  water  supply  is  entirely 
inadequate  for  the  needs  of  such  a  place  and  bodily  cleanliness  is  almost 
impossible.     Clothes  and  bodies  are  washed  in  the  same  tubs. 

In  the  Kendall  County  Jail,  inspected  August  13,  1915,  "separation  of 
different  classes  of  offenders  is  impossible." 

Knox  County  Jail,  inspected   August   3,   1915.  .     The  cells  are 

small,  dark  holes  in  the  stone  cell  block.  They  are  ventilated  by  openings 
into  an  air  shaft  that  leads  to  the  roof.  The  doors  are  small  iron  lattices. 
The  toilet  facilities  of  the  cells  are  covered  buckets. 

Separation  of  persons  charged  with  different  classes  of  crime  is  impos- 
sible. All  prisoners  except  women  must  be  held  in  the  one  large  room  or 
locked  in  their  cells. 

La  Salle  Coiuity  Jail,  inspected  October  14,  1915.  The  present  jail  is 
already  so  overcrowded  .     .      "that  no  classification  of  prisoners  can  be 

made.  On  the  day  of  inspection  two  boys,  aged  seventeen  and  eighteen, 
were  in  the  same  room  with  five  older  men  held  on  charges  of  bastardy, 
rape,  assault,  vagrancy  and  obtaining  money  under  false  pretenses.  The  boys 
were  serving  sentences  of  three  months  for  larceny.  The  law  requiring 
separation  of  minors  from  adults  and  persons  charged  with  crimes  not 
infamous  from  those  charged  with  infamous  crimes  can  not  be  carried  out." 

The  LawTence  County  Jail,  inspected  June  2,  1915,  is  a  stone  annex  of 
the  sheriff's  residence.  The  first  floor  is  a  large  stone  room  with  windows  on 
three  sides.  This  room  is  well  ventilated,  but  it  is  dark  and  lights  are 
burned  in  the  day  time.     The  stone  walls  and  floors  are  full  of  moisture. 

The  Lee  County  Jail,  Inspected  December  6,  1915,  has  one  room  for  men 

and  one  for  women.     Classification  of  prisoners  is  impossible. 

10 


I 


The  jail  is  a  one-story  annex  to  the  sheriff's  residence.  The  men's  room 
is  on  the  west  side.  The  floors,  walls  and  cage  are  of  stone.  The  cage  is  a 
low  stone  block  with  twelve  caves  for  the  men  to  sleep  in.  The  caves  are 
arranged  six  on  a  side,  back  to  back.  One  row  of  caves  is  so  dark  that  the 
interior  can  not  be  seen  without  a  light. 

.     The  jail  was  clean.      The  prisoners   said   they  were   well   fed. 
The  jail  faults  are  chargeable  to  the  construction  and  not  to  the  management. 

The  men  are  given  separate  towels.  They  wash  their  own  towels  and 
clothing.     The  county  does  not  provide  changes  of  clothing. 

The  sheriff  receives  fifty  cents  a  day  for  the  food  of  each  prisoner. 
Twenty-five  dollars  a  month  is  allowed  for  a  jailer. 

The  greatest  fault  of  this  jail  is  that  no  classification  of  prisoners  can 
be  made.  On  the  day  of  inspection  two  boys,  aged  seventeen  and  eighteen, 
were  in  the  same  room  with  five  older  men  held  on  charges  of  bastardy,  rape, 
assault,  vagrancy  and  obtaining  money  under  false  pretenses.  The  boys 
were  serving  sentences  of  three  months  for  larceny.  The  law  requiring 
separation  of  minors  from  adults  and  persons  charged  with  crimes  not 
infamous  from  those  charged  with  infamous  crimes  can  not  be  carried  out. 

Logan  County  Jail,  inspected  December  15,  1915.  .  .  .  One  row  of 
windows  near  the  roof  furnishes  the  very  small  amount  of  light  that  enters 
the  jail-room. 

In  the  jail-room  Is  a  stone  block  with  sixteen  tiny  dark  caves.  There 
are  four  caves  on  each  side  of  each  tier  of  the  block.  Each  cave  has  a 
barred  door.  The  caves  are  so  dark  that  the  interior  can  be  seen  with 
difficulty.      .      .      . 

On  each  side  of  the  room  are  the  three  tiny  slits  which  serve  as 
windows.     They  are  treble  barred.     Air  and  light  are  carefully  excluded. 

Cots  or  beds  are  not  provided.  The  men  sleep  on  black,  discolored 
mattresses  on  the  stone  floors. 

The  women's  department  is  on  the  second  floor.  .  .  .  The  windows 
of  their  rooms  are  double  barred.  The  rooms  are  lined  with  wood.  There 
would  be  little  chance  of  escape  if  fire  should  break  out. 

There  were  six  men  in  the  stone  dungeon  on  the  first  floor.  No  separa- 
tion of  different  classes  of  prisoners  is  possible.  The  sick  and  well,  good 
and  bad,  first  offenders  and  hardened  criminals,  must  be  herded  together  in 
a  room  in  which  it  is  unsafe,  from  the  standpoint  of  health,  to  confine  a 
human   being. 

Confined  in  one  room  without  air  or  light,  sleeping  on  black  mattresses 
on  the  cold  stone  floor,  using  a  toilet  that  is  anything  but  sanitary,  washing 
their  own  towels  and  clothing — there  is  little  chance  for  the  prisoners  in 
this  jail  to  escape  physical  and  moral  contagion. 

The  Macon  County  Jail,  Inspected  June  30,  1915,  was  built  50  years 
ago.  .  .  .  With  the  exception  of  the  women's  department  the  jail  is 
unfit  for  the  detention  of  human  beings.      .      .  The  building  is  kept  In 

as  good  a  condition  as  so  ill-ventilated  and  unhealthful  a  place  can  be  kept. 

There  were  four  women,  twenty-nine  men  and  three  boys  in  the  jail  at 
the  time  of  inspection. 

This  jail  is  not  fit  for  human  beings  to  live  in.  It  is  insanitary  to  such 
a  degree  as  to  make  it  an  unsafe  place  to  hold  men  and  women.  The  law 
requires  that  certain  men  shall  be  deprived  of  their  liberty.  There  is  no 
law  on  earth  under  which  any  one  can  be  deprived  of  air  to  breathe. 

The  lack  of  individual  towels  is  inexcusable.  These  men  confined  in 
insanitary  quarters  should  be  given  clean,  individual  towels  and  the  healthy 
men  should  not  be  exposed  to  contagion  by  being  compelled  to  use  the  towels 
of  the  men  who  may  be  suffering  from  specific  infections. 

The  women's  quarters  are  too  small.  Young  women,  girls,  and  old 
offenders  must  be  placed  in  the  same  room. 

The  Macoupin  County  Jail,  inspected  June  19,  1915.  is  a  two-story 
stone  building  with  the  appearance  and  equipment  of  a  small,  mediaeval 
fortress.  The  windows  of  the  jail  rooms  are  mere  slits,  .  .  .  The 
building  reeks  with  the  odors  of  disinfectants. 

11  UNIVERSITY  OF 

lUINOlS  UBRARY 


The  main  prison  room  has  three  very  small  windows  on  each  side. 
The  walls  are  stone.  The  cage  has  four  cells,  two  on  each  side  of  a  corridor. 
The  cells  have  barred  backs,  and  latticed  doors  are  placed  opposite  the 
windows  so  that  the  small  amount  of  air  that  enters  the  room  can  reach  the 
cells. 

There  is  one  room  for  women  on  the  first  floor.  It  has  two  small  slits 
for  windows. 

There  were  thirteen  prisoners  in  the  jail  at  the  time  of  inspection.  The 
one  woman,  serving  a  jail  sentence  on  an  adultery  charge,  was  in  the 
women's  cell  on  the  second  floor.  .  .  .  The  woman  was  conversing  in 
loud  tones  with  the  men  in  the  second  floor  cage.  The  cell  is  only  a  few 
feet  from  the  men's  room  and  the  men  and  women  can  talk  to  each  other 
without  difficulty. 

The  sheriff  tries  to  separate  the  prisoners  according  to  classes  of  crime 
and  those  held  on  charges  of  infamous  crimes  were  confined  on  the  second 
floor,  and  those  for  crimes  not  infamous  on  the  first  floor.  The  woman 
prisoner  was  able  to  converse  freely  with  the  men  held  on  charges  of 
infamous  crimes. 

This  jail  is  a  relic  of  the  days  when  sanitation,  ventilation  and  humanity 
to  persons  charged  with  crimes  were  unknown.  It  stands  across  the  street 
from  one  of  the  finest  courthouses  in  Illinois.  The  almshouse  of  the  county 
is  one  of  the  handsomest  and  most  costly  in  the  State.  Macoupin  houses  its 
records  and  its  poor  in  the  most  beautiful  and  costly  buildings.  It  confines 
its  law-breakers  in  a  wretched  survival  of  the  days  of  barbarism,  ignorance 
and  cruelty. 

The  Madison  County  Jail,  inspected  May  27,  1915,  is  in  the  rear  of  the 
sheriff's  spacious,  two-story  brick  house.  The  prison  odors  are  noticeable 
for  half  a  block. 

The  new  part  of  the  jail  is  clean,  sanitary  and  well  ventilated.  The  old 
part  is  clean,  insanitary,  ill-ventilated,  dark  and  odorous. 

The  old  part  consists  of  a  large  prison  room  with  a  two-tier  cage.  Each 
tier  contains  ten  small  cells,  five  on  each  side.  The  cells  are  back  to  back 
and  are  of  solid  iron  with  barred  doors.  There  is  a  stand  and  toilet  in  each 
cage  corridor.  The  two  tiers  are  alike.  The  cells  are  dark  closets  through 
which  there  can  be  no  passage  of  air.  There  is  no  bathroom  in  this  part 
of  the  jail.  The  place  was  as  clean  as  soap  and  water  could  make  it,  but 
the  lack  of  ventilation  made  the  room  odorous  and  the  powerful  disinfectants 
which  were  used  ciade  the  smells  even  more  sickening. 

Prisoners  are  not  separated  according  to  age  nor  classes  of  crime.  There 
were  seventy  prisoners  in  the  jail  at  the  time  of  inspection.  A  man  under 
death  sentence  occupied  a  section  of  the  new  jail.  Other  prisoners,  on 
account  of  the  small  quarters,  were  placed  together  regardless  of  age  and 
charges.     Two  seventeen-year-old  boys  were  in  the  room  with  older  offenders. 

Marion  County  Jail,  inspected  April  7,  1915.  .  .  .  Disgustingly 
dirty,  dark  and  foul-smelling.  A  steel  cage,  two  tiers  high  and  15  feet 
square  holds  the  prisoners.  .  .  .  Long,  narrow  windows  at  two  sides  let 
In  a  little  air.  The  glass  of  the  windows  is  dark  with  dirt,  and  the  ledges 
are  covered  with  refuse. 

One  side  of  the  steel  cage  is  latticed  and  on  the  opposite  side  are  two 
narrow  lattice  windows.  In  each  tier  of  the  cage  is  a  long  corridor  and  two 
cells. 

At  the  time  of  inspection  there  were  three  men  in  each  cell.  The 
corridor  had  an  open  toilet,  dirty  and  foul-smelling.  .  .  .  The  physical 
condition  of  the  men  is  evidently  not  taken  into  account.  They  were  dirty, 
disheveled  and  unshaven. 

The  cells  and  corridors  of  the  cage  are  very  dark  and  dirty.  The 
bars  are  covered  with  dust  and  were  used  to  hold  burnt  matches  and  other 
bits  of  trash. 

The  cots  had  dirty  mattresses  and  blankets  and  were  all  in  disorder. 
The  men  are  kept  locked  in  the  cage. 

The  women's  section  is  between  the  sheriff's  kitchen  and  the  men's  jail. 
There  are  no  toilet  facilities  in  this  section  except  uncovered  night 
buckets.     There  are  no  hospital  arrangements. 

12 


Minors  are  placed  with  old  offenders  and  no  separation  according  to  the 
degrees  of  crime  is  made. 

Sixteen  men  are  confined  in  the  jail.  All  are  herded  together  without 
regard  to  degree  of  crime  charged.  There  was  one  boy  of  seventeen  in  the 
cage  with  the  older  men. 

Mason  County  Jail,  inspected  July  8,  1915.  The  windows  are  so  high  in 
the  walls  that  the  air  can  not  enter  the  lower  parts  of  the  cage;  they  are  so 
small  that  there  is  little  light  in  the  room.  In  the  middle  of  the  day  the 
electric  lights  burn.  .  .  .  The  fronts  are  barred.  Each  cell  has  a  toilet, 
a  stand  and  an  iron  wall  cot.  The  wall  cots  have  very  thin  mattresses. 
When  there  are  only  a  few  prisoners  two  mattresses  are  used  on  each  cot, 
but  when  the  cells  are  all  occupied  there  not  enough  mattresses  to  go  around 
twice  and  the  men  must  sleep  on  exceedingly  hard  beds. 

The  bathtub  is  in  a  small  cell  in  the  room  outside  the  cage.  The  door 
of  the  cell  is  barred  and  the  tub  is  in  view  of  the  occupants  of  the  cage. 

A  very  steep  stairway  leads  to  the  second  floor  where  the  women  and 
the  insane  are  held.  .  .  .  This  room  is  not  separated  from  the  men's 
jail  by  walls  or  doors.  Conversations  can  be  distinctly  heard  between  the 
two  sections. 

The  exclusion  of  light  and  air  makes  this  jail  insanitary.  There  Is  so 
much  solid  iron  in  the  cage  that  the  small  amount  of  air  which  does  enter 
can  not  reach  all  parts  of  the  room  or  the  cage. 

Separation  of  the  different  classes  of  prisoners  is  impossible.  Old 
offenders  and  boys  must  be  kept  together.  Wom«n  and  insane  can  not  be 
separated  and  the  section  used  for  them  is  not  properly  separated  from  the 
men's  jail. 

Massac  County  Jail,  inspected  April  22,  1915.  The  prisoners  can 
scratch  their  way  out  of  the  Massac  County  Jail  with  their  fingers.  The 
mortar  between  the  bricks  is  so  rotten  that  the  scratching  of  a  finger  nail 
will  remove  it  and  loosen  the  bricks.  On  one  side  of  the  jail  are  five 
patches  that  mend  holes  drilled  by  prisoners. 

The  jail  is  old.  .  .  .  The  room  is  dark.  There  are  two  windows 
on  two  opposite  sides  and  one  window  at  the  end.  The  cage  is  13  by  23  feet 
and  contains  four  cells  and  a  corridor.  .  .  .  The  cells  are  7  by  6  % 
feet.     Each  cell  has  four  cots  with  mattresses. 

The  men  are  locked  all  day  in  the  cage.  The  walls  of  the  room  are 
so  insecure  that  it  is  not  safe  to  allow  the  men  to  leave  the  cage. 

Bedbugs  and  cockroaches  were  numerous. 

This  jail  is  only  a  useless  hulk.  It  is  not  strong  enough  to  hold 
prisoners.  The  county  has  spent  large  sums  of  money  in  recapturing  those 
who  have  escaped.  It  is  not  safe  to  leave  the  prison  unguarded  at  any  hour. 
The  main  prison  is  dark  and  ill-ventilated,  the  cage  is  placed  so  that  no 
air  currents  can  pass  through  it.  There  is  no  provision  for  the  separation  of 
different  classes  of  prisoners. 

McDonough  County  Jail,  inspected  August  30,  1915.  The  main  jail- 
room  .  .  .  has  three  small  slits  in  each  of  two  sides  and  two  slits  on  a 
third  side.  The  slits  are  barred  on  the  outside  and  covered  with  perforated 
steel  on  the  inside.  Light  and  air  are  successfully  excluded.  The  cells 
are  very  small  and  dark. 

Several  of  the  cells  are  used  as  garbage  dumps.  Newspapers  and  all 
sorts  of  jail  refuse  were  piled  in  them.     The  entire  room  needs  whitewash. 

There  were  seven  men  in  the  main  jail  at  the  time  of  inspection.  All 
were  in  the  men's  section.  No  classification  of  different  classes  of  prisoners 
can  be  made.     The  jail  is  insanitary.     No  air  can  enter  the  cells. 

The  McLean  County  Jail,  inspected  October  18,  1915,  is  in  an  insanitary, 
ill-ventilated,  dark  prison. 

The  main  prison  is  a  three-tier  stone  cell  block.  The  cells  are  dark 
caves  in  the  sides  of  the  block.  .  .  .  There  are  six  cells  on  each  side  of 
each  tier.  The  cells  are  small  and  dark.  They  are  furnished  with  canvas 
hammocks  and  small  covered  night  buckets. 

13 


The  Menard  County  Jail,  inspected  July  9,  1915,  is  a  stone  annex  to  the 
sheriff's  residence.  The  main  prison  is  a  large,  dark,  damp,  ill-smelling  room. 
Near  the  high  roof,  on  two  sides,  are  two  small  slits  and  one  long,  narrow 
one.  Through  these  tiny  apertures  come  the  only  air  and  light  that  the 
prisoners  can  have. 

The  room  has  a  two-tier  cell,  with  six  cells  in  each  tier.  The  cells  are 
back  to  back.  They  are  black  holes  in  the  stone  walls.  They  are  so  dark 
that  it  is  impossible,  without  a  light,  to  see  what  is  in  them. 

The  darkness,  dampness  and  insanitation  of  the  jail  are  sufficient  rea- 
sons for  abandoning  it  entirely.  In  addition  to  these  conditions,  the  jail  is 
unfit  for  use  because  of  the  impossibility  of  separating  the  different  classes 
of  prisoners.  The  young  boys  held  on  first  charges  must  be  placed  with  the 
vilest  offenders.  Diseased  men  and  healthy  men,  presumably  innocent  men 
and  those  convicted  of  crimes,  boys  and  aged  degenerates  must  be  held  in 
the  same  room. 

The  Morgan  County  Jail  was  built  in  1864,  and  remodeled  in  1904. 

The  old  part  of  the  jail  is  in  two  sections.  One  section  has  three  dark 
cells,  a  corridor  and  a  bathroom.  The  other  has  four  dark  cells.  The 
sections  are  lighted  by  a  skylight  and  ventilated  by  a  small  window  In  the 
bathroom.     This  part  of  the  jail  should  be  abandoned. 

The  women's  section  is  fairly  good,  but  a  deputy  sheriff's  bedroom 
should  not  adjoin  the  women's  quarters  unless  the  deputy  Is  a  woman. 

The  main  jail  room  has  space,  light  and  air  for  half  a  dozen  men,  but 
not  for  any  more.  As  there  are  usually  from  twelve  to  eighteen  men  in  this 
section,  the  conditions  are  far  from  being  good. 

Separation  of  different  classes  of  prisoners  is  impossible.  Boys  and 
men,  old  offenders  and  first  offenders,  bootleggers,  vagrants,  burglars  and 
suspects  are  herded  together  without  regard  to  the  inevitable  moral  and 
physical  contagious.     The  jail  is  too  small  for  any  separation  to  be  made. 

The  Moultrie  County  Jail,  inspected  July  2,  1915,  is  one  large  room 
on  the  second  floor  of  the  ancient,  dilapidated  brick  buildiag.     . 

The  cage  is  a  wide,  very  dark  corridor  with  four  cells  on  one  side  and 
three  on  the  other.  There  is  one  small  window  in  the  corridor.  An  electric 
light  burned  in  the  corridor,  but  the  place  was  so  dark,  except  directly  under 
the  light,  that  the  faces  of  the  prisoners  could  not  be  distinctly  seen. 

The  cells  were  very  dark,  and  fresh  air  can  not  possibly  enter  them. 
The  iron  wall  cots  had  mattresses  and  blankets.  The  Jail  was  evidently 
kept  as  clean  as  so  hideous,  dark  and  insanitary  a  place  could  be.      .      .      . 

There  were  seven  male  prisoners  at  the  time  of  inspection.  Three  were 
under  twenty  years  of  age.  All  are  held  in  one  room  and  are  locked  In  the 
cage  at  night.     .     .     . 

No  provision  is  made  for  the  women  prisoners. 

The  Ogle  County  Jail,  inspected  December  1,  1915,  Is  old,  dark  and 
Ill-ventilated. 

Perry  County  Jail,  inspected  April  29.  1915.  .  .  .  All  prisoners  are 
confined  in  one  room.  No  separation  of  different  classes  Is  possible.  Minors, 
old  offenders,  murderers,  bootleggers  and  burglars  are  confined  in  one  room. 
No  arrangements  have  been  made  for  any  separation. 

Pike  County  Jail,  inspected  May  12,  1915.     .     .     . 

The  jail  should  be  entirely  rebuilt.  It  is  so  damp  and  Ill-ventilated  that 
it  is  wrong  to  confine  anyone  in  It.  There  is  no  means  of  separation  of  men 
from  women,  as  the  four  sections  are  In  one  room.  Men,  women,  minors 
and  all  classes  of  offenders  are  held  In  practically  one  room. 

The  Pulaski  Coimty  Jail,  inspected  April  26,  1915,  was  built  two  years 
ago  at  a  cost  of  $10,000.  It  is  a  handsome,  two-story  brick  building  with 
the  jail  quarters  in  the  rear  of  the  sheriff's  residence.  It  stands  in  the 
courthouse  square. 

On  the  first  floor  are  a  main  room  and  a  trusty's  room.  The  main  room 
Is  24  by  32  feet  and  has  brick  walls  and  cement  floor  and  ceiling.     At  each 

14 


of  two  sides  are  two  windows.  They  are  not  opposite  each  other  and  there  is 
no  free  air  current.     At  the  end  of  the  room  are  three  windows. 

The  cage  is  14  by  26  feet  and  contains  5  cells  and  a  corridor.  Two 
boys,  19  years  old,  were  confined  in  this  cage  with  older  prisoners. 

Prisoners  are  not  compelled  to  bathe  on  entrance  to  the  jail,  nor  at 
regular  intervals  afterwards.  Changes  of  clothing  are  not  provided.  The 
interior  has  never  been  whitewashed. 

The  Piitnam  County  Jail,  inspected  August  18,   1915.      .  It  was 

one  of  the  first  buildings  erected  in  a  new  settlement.  The  early  settlers  of 
Hennepin  built  a  strong  room  for  the  settlement's  offenders  and  the  old 
relic  still  stands.  But,  unfortunately,  instead  of  being  preserved  merely  as  a 
souvenir  of  the  early  life  of  the  community  it  is  used  for  the  same  purpose 
that  it  was  built  when  Illinois  was  an  unsettled  wilderness. 

The  jail-room  is  18  feet  square.  The  walls,  floor  and  ceiling  are  of 
heavy  boards  studded  with  iron  spikes.  There  are  two  small  slits  through 
which  a  few  rays  of  sunlight  and  very  little  air  enter.  In  the  center  of  the 
room  is  a  latticed  cage  9  by  9  feet  square  and  7  feet  high.  This  cage  con- 
tains two  cots  with  mattresses  and  blankets  and  two  Iron  wall  cots.  The 
prisoners  enter  the  cage  through  a  window  at  one  side. 

The  toilet  facilities  are  one  tin  pan,  a  tin  bucket  and  at  one  side  of  the 
room  a  wooden  box  above  a  deep  vault.  The  jail  had  recently  been  white- 
washed and  was  clean. 

There  were  three  prisoners.  One  man  is  held  on  a  charge  of  a  most 
infamous  crime.  One  is  held  on  a  peace  bond  and  the  third  Is  serving  a 
sentence  on  a  charge  of  disorderly  conduct.  The  law  requiring  the  separation 
of  different  classes  of  offenders  cannot  be  observed.  .  .  .  The  sewage 
vault  beneath  the  building  is  a  constant  menace  to  the  health  of  not  only  the 
persons  confined  in  the  jail  but  of  those  whose  wells  are  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  jail. 

Randolph  County  Jail,  inspected  May  2,  1915,  confines  Its  prisoners  In  a 
basement  dungeon  under  the  sheriff's  residence.  The  walls  are  of  solid  rock. 
There  is  a  small,  brick  paved  area  around  the  walls  that  was  very  wet. 
Water  can  not  drain  from  it  and  as  the  hydrant  leaks  into  It  the  place  is 
always  wet  and  insanitary. 

The  jail  contains  an  entrance,  two  cells  12  by  15  feet  and  four  cells 
7  by  8  feet.  The  only  light  from  the  outside  comes  through  narrow  slits  in 
the  walls.  There  are  two  slits  in  each  of  the  larger  rooms  and  one  in  each  of 
the  smaller  ones.  The  heavy  doors  are  solid  with  a  small,  square  opening 
in  each.  The  rooms  were  so  dark  when  the  lights  were  turned  off  that  it 
was  impossible  to  see  whether  or  not  there  were  prisoners  in  the  room. 
.  The  drainage  is  from  heavy  tiles  which  open  into  the  room.  There 
is  no  running  water,  but  every  day  the  sheriff  flushes  the  pipes  with  a  hose. 
Battered  tin  pans  are  the  bathing  facilities. 

The  prisoner's  towels  were  black  with  grime.  They  were  unfit  for  use 
on  human  bodies.  The  sheriff  does  not  have  them  washed  and  as  no  light 
and  air  can  penetrate  these  quarters  the  efforts  of  the  men  to  keep  them  clean 
do  not  have  much  effect  on  them.  The  men  have  to  wash  and  dry  their 
own  things  in  these  rooms. 

The  entire  place  is  unfit  for  human  beings  or  for  any  living  thing. 
There  is  neither  air  nor  sunlight.  The  sanitary  arrangements  are  entirely 
inadequate.  The  lack  of  drainage  around  the  walls  makes  the  place  a 
menace  to  health.  There  are  no  arrangements  for  the  separation  of  different 
classes  of  prisoners.  The  men  are  held  in  darkness  and  are  deprived  of  air 
and  sunshine. 

Saline  Coimty  Jail,  inspected  April  16,  1915,  ,  .  .  built  three  years 
ago,  is  a  handsome  two-story  brick  structure. 

Minors  are  not  kept  separate  from  old  offenders  and  there  is  no  separa- 
tion according  to  classes  of  crime.  Six  United  States  prisoners,  whose  charges 
were  not  reported,  were  locked  in  with  the  other  men. 

Sangamon  County  Jail,  inspected  January  25,   1915,  built  50 

years  ago,  is  the  typical  stone  block  jail  of  the  last  century. 

15 


The  stone-block  is  two  tiers  high.  On  each  side  of  each  tier  ar«  eight 
email  caves.  In  each  cave  is  a  double-deck,  iron  bunk  with  springs  and 
blankets.     An  opening  in  the  wall  holds  a  night  bucket. 

On  each  side  of  the  block  is  a  tub  so  ancient,  so  dilapidated,  so  entirely 
insanitary  that  its  very  presence  in  the  room  is  a  menace  to  the  health  of 
the  prisoners,  to  say  nothing  of  the  evil  effects  of  its  use.  Bathing  must  be 
a  public  performance. 

There  is  one  toilet  for  the  use  of  all  the  prisoners.     It  is  exposed. 

Women  are  held  on  the  second  floor  in  a  wood-lined  department.  Their 
quarters  are  clean  and  well  ventilated,  but  the  danger  of  fire  is  so  great  that 
no  person  should  be  confined  in  this  department.  There  is  no  fire  protection 
and  the  old,  wood-lining  would  burn  like  tinder. 

There  were  75  prisoners  in  the  jail  on  the  day  of  inspection.  Fifteen 
were  serving  sentences.  Sixty  were  waiting  trial.  There  were  two  women 
and  two  boys. 

The  jail  is  insanitary,  wretchedly  ventilated,  inhumanly  overcrowded. 
Fifty  years  ago  Springfield  was  a  small  city  and  the  population  of  the  county 
was  small.  The  jail  was  built  according  to  the  needs  of  the  community  popu- 
lation of  that  day.  It  must  answer  the  needs  of  the  large  population  t  day. 
For  one-fifth  the  number  of  prisoners,  the  jail  might  not  be  an  entirely  con- 
demnable  place,  but  for  the  number  that  are  usually  here,  the  jail  Is  abso- 
lutely unfit. 

No  air  can  enter  the  tiny  caves.  In  many  of  them  two  men  must  sleep. 
The  air  cannot  circulate  through  the  jail  room,  but  70  men  must  stay  in  this 
room.  Separation  of  different  classes  of  prisoners  is  impossible.  The  per 
cent  of  communicable  diseases  in  every  jail  is  high.  These  prisoners,  sick 
and  well,  diseased  and  healthy,  young  and  old,  vagrants,  burglars,  robbers, 
murderers,  suspects  and  first  offenders,  must  be  herded  together.  The  archi- 
tecture of  the  jail  makes  classification  impossible. 

Schuyler  County  Jail,  inspected  May  14,  1915,  .  .  .  is  in  the  rear 
of  the  sheriff's  handsome  two-story,  red-brick  residence.  The  plumbing  is 
out  of  order  and  water  stands  in  the  cells.     There  is  a  strong  odor  from  the 

clogged  drain There  are  no   provisions  for   the   separation   of 

different  classes  of  prisoners. 

Scott  County  Jail,  inspected  August  27,  1915,  is  a  dilapidated,  brick 
hovel  with  a  stone  foundation.  This  jail  ought  to  be  torn  down.  It  is  an 
unsightly  object.  It  is  dark,  damp,  has  no  ventilation,  is  hoplessly  insani- 
tary. .  .  .  There  is  no  sunlight,  no  air.  .  .  .  The  walls  and  floors 
are  damp. 

The  jailer  has  rooms  in  the  brick  section.  The  prisoners  live  in  the 
stone  basement  and  in  one  cell  at  the  front  of  the  house. 

The  women's  department  is  a  dark,  dingy,  wooden  cell  with  iron  grat- 
ings. It  is  near  the  front  door.  In  cases  of  fire  the  woodwork  would  bum 
like  tinder. 

The  main  jail  room  has  four  small,  double-barred  windows.  Very  little 
light  and  air  can  enter. 

The  cage  contains  two  small,  intensely  dark  cells  and  a  corridor. 

The  jail  is  heated  by  an  old  stove  and  lighted  by  oil  lamps. 

Shelby  Coimty  Jail,  inspected  June  24,  1915. 

The  jail  room  on  the  first  floor  is  dark  and  little  air  can  enter  It.  The 
windows  are  covered  with  iron  panes,  partially  perforated,  and  air  and  light 
are  excluded. 

Stephenson  Coimty  Jail,  inspected  December  4,  1915.  .  .  .  Too 
dark  to  be  sanitary.  Vermin  .  .  .  are  numerous.  .  .  .  The  odors 
of  disinfectants  were  overpowering. 

Tazewell  Coimty  Jail,  inspected  October  15,  1915.  .  .  .  The  jail 
building  is  old.     The  rooms  are  dark  and  ill-ventilated. 

The  loathsome  odors  of  disinfectants  and  clogged  sewer  pipes  permeate 
the  place.  The  main  room  on  the  first  floor  is  a  dark,  vile-smelling  place, 
with  three  windows  on  each  of  three  sides.     With  this  amount  of  window 

16 


space,  there  should  be  a  good  supply  of  fresh  air  and  light.  But  the  win- 
dows are  small  and  the  gratings  and  old  dark  panes  keep  out  the  light  and 
air.  The  cage  has  two  tiers.  There  are  six  cells  in  each  tier,  three  cells  on 
each  side  of  a  corridor.  Each  cell  has  a  most  insanitary  toilet,  a  steel  wall 
cot  with  mattresses  and  blankets.  In  the  cage  corridor  is  a  tub  so  dark 
and  dilapidated  as  to  be  almost  hidden  in  the  shadows. 

Prom  the  pipes  come  the  odors  of  the  clogged  sewer.  The  floor  was 
damp. 

On  the  second  floor  are  the  quarters  for  women  and  juveniles.  The 
women's  room  is  a  corner  barred  to  form  a  room.  A  blanket  draped  over 
the  bars  conceals  the  toilet.  There  are  two  cells  with  outside  windows. 
There  is  little  privacy  for  the  women.  Every  part  of  the  room  can  be  seen 
from  the  stairs 

The  department  for  juveniles  Is  across  the  hall.  The  room  has  a  two- 
cell  cage,  a  bath  and  toilet.     The  floor  is  of  wood. 

The  present  jail  is  an  unfit  place  to  confine  human  beings.  It  cannot  be 
operated  without  a  violation  of  the  State  law  regulating  the  separation  of 
different  classes  of  prisoners  and  requiring  cleanliness. 

Union  County  Jail,  inspected  April  28,  1915. 

A  two-story  stone  building  in  the  back  yard  of  the  sheriff's  residence  Is 
the  Union  County  Jail.  The  building  is  of  solid  stone  with  two  rooms  on 
each  floor.  The  rooms  are  so  dark  that  one  cannot  see  any  part  of  the 
interior  without  a  light.     They  are  damp  and  ill-smelling. 

There  is  a  small  entrance  with  a  room  on  each  side.  The  rooms  are 
10%  feet  by  12  feet,  and  the  only  air  and  light  come  from  a  slit  in  the  wall 
near  the  ceiling.     This  slit  is  4  feet  long  and  8  inches  wide. 

The  sewage  facilities  are  a  funnel  put  through  the  wall.  This  funnel 
opens  into  a  wooden  trough  on  the  outside.  If  the  sewage  is  washed  through 
the  funnel,  water  must  be  poured  into  the  funnel.  From  the  appearance  of 
the  trough  beneath  the  funnel,  little  water  is  used  to  cleanse  the  funnel.  No 
more  disgusting  and  indecent  method  of  sewage  disposal  can  be  Imagined 
than  this.  There  is  a  funnel  for  each  cell.  The  funnels  in  the  second-floor 
cells  are  placed  in  such  a  way  that  the  sewage  may  or  may  not  fall  down 
into  the  trough. 

Vermillion  County  Jail,  inspected  July  18,  1915. 

At  the  time  of  inspection  there  were  3  women,  77  men  and  2  minors  ia 
the  jail. 

The  cells  are  so  dark  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  see  what  is  in  them. 
There  are  wall  cots  in  some.  In  others  the  prisoners  are  compelled  to  sleep 
on  mattresses  on  the  floor.  There  are  three  men  to  each  narrow  cell.  The 
mattresses  and  blankets  are  old,  very  dirty  and  filled  with  vermin. 

The  walls  of  the  cage  and  the  room  are  horribly  defaced  and  have  not 
been  whitewashed  or  painted  for  a  long  time. 

Small  vegetable  cans  are  used  for  night  buckets.  There  are  only  two 
night  buckets  that  do  not  leak,  the  men  said.  The  tin  vegetable  cans  are 
uncovered. 

The  men  said  that  the  rats  and  vermin  make  the  cells  unbearable.  They 
complained  very  bitterly  of  the  drinking  water.  They  get  the  water  from  the 
faucets  and  they  say  that  the  water  for  drinking  is  warm  and  the  water  for 
washing  is  cold. 

The  men  were  unshaven  and  their  clothing  was  untidy.  As  changes  of 
clothing  or  underclothing  are  not  provided  by  the  county,  few  of  the  men  can 
keep  clean.  They  wash  their  own  clothes  in  the  water  which  they  say  is  not 
hot  enough  to  secure  cleanliness  and  clothing  is  to  be  dried  in  the  dark 
cage. 

Thirteen  men  are  serving  sentences;  one  man  is  to  be  taken  to  the 
Chester  penitentiary;  one  man  has  escaped  from  Kankakee  and  is  to  be  held 
only  a  few  hours.  Three  women  and  64  men,  "presumably  innocent,"  are 
awaiting  trial. 

The  third-floor  cell  is  the  only  one  in  which  human  beings  should  be 
held.  The  other  cages  are  dark,  have  no  fresh  air  and  are  infested  with 
vermin.     The   women's   section  and   the  hospital   room  are   light   and   well 

17 


ventilated,  but  the  women's  section  is  inadequate  as  there  can  be  no  classi- 
fication of  prisoners. 

The  Warren  County  Jail,  inspected  August  2,  1915,  Is  to  be  abandoned 
in  a  few  days.  August  14  a  contract  is  to  be  let  for  a  new  Jail.  The  new 
prison  will  be  built  on  the  site  of  the  old  one,  adjoining  the  sheriff's  resi- 
dence.    Prisoners  will  be  held  in  other  jails  while  the  new  one  is  being  built. 

The  new  jail  is  greatly  needed.  The  old  one  is  dark,  damp,  insanitary. 
The  main  jail  room  contains  a  two-tier  cage  of  latticed  iron  with  four  cells 
and  a  corridor  in  each  tier.  The  section  for  women  and  boys  Is  In  an  outer 
room.  There  are  two  small  cells  on  the  first  tier  and  two  on  the  second. 
All  cells  are  dark  and  the  air  currents  cannot  pass  through  them. 

The  "Washington   County  Jail,   inspected    April    6.   1916,  Is   a 

menace  to  public  health.  ...  In  summer  the  odor  can  be  detected  half 
a  block  away.  The  vault  of  an  old  outside  closet  receives  the  sewage.  The 
vault,  the  pipes  leading  to  it  and  the  hoppers  have  an  odor  Indescribably 
disgusting  and  loathsome. 

The  jail  has  been  condemned.     It  should  be  absolutely  obliterated. 

A  washroom  in  the  prison  yard  shuts  off  the  air  from  the  north  window, 
and  the  south  one  is  kept  closed  to  shut  out  the  horrible  odor  from  the  open 
hopper  in  the  yard  near  the  window. 

At  the  end  of  the  main  room  is  a  small  closet  containg  the  toilet,  an 
open  bowl.  The  odor  from  this  is  hideous.  Fortunately,  an  iron  door  sepa- 
rates this  closet  from  the  main  room. 

The  toilet  facilities  in  the  room  consist  of  a  stationary  washstand  with 
two  very  dirty  bowls,  a  bucket  of  water  and  two  metal  tubs,  which  are  used 
for  washing  both  the  bodies  and  clothes  of  the  prisoners. 

There  were  three  prisoners  in  the  jail  awaiting  trial. 

The  jail  has  been  condemned.  The  city  has  passed  an  ordinance  declar- 
ing it  a  nuisance.  The  merchants  and  residents  in  the  neighborhood  vote 
it  an  abomination. 

Wayne  County  Jail,  inspected  April  9,  1915. 

The  cage  has  two  cells  7  by  5  feet  and  a  corridor  9  by  14  feet. 

The  brick  walls  are  dirty  and  defaced.  There  is  an  open  toilet  in  the 
corner  of  the  main  room  and  one  in  a  corner  of  the  cage. 

At  the  time  of  inspection  there  were  four  men  in  each  cell  and  four  in 
the  corridor  outside  the  cage.  Three  of  the  men  were  ill,  but  no  provision 
had  been  made  for  their  care  or  their  separation  from  the  other  prisoners. 
One  of  them  had  an  advanced  case  of  gonorrhea. 

Some  of  the  men  sleep  on  mattresses  on  the  floor  and  some  in  canvas 
hammocks.  The  hammocks  and  the  blankets  and  comforters  were  ragged  and 
very  dirty. 

Bath  water  is  heated  on  an  old  stove  and  the  prisoners  and  their  clothes 
are  washed  in  an  old  metal  laundry  tub.  Twelve  prisoners  were  using  two 
towels. 

City  prisoners  are  kept  in  a  small,  dirty  lavatory  on  the  second  floor  of 
the  jail.     They  sleep  on  iron  shelves. 

Another  very  dirty  lavatory  under  the  city  cell  is  allotted  to  the  women. 
The  city  cell  and  the  women's  cell  are  in  the  same  room,  one  above  the  other. 

The  prison  is  in  so  dilapidated  a  condition  that  prisoners  have  to  be 
guarded,  as  well  as  locked  in.      .      .      . 

The  jail  should  be  condemned  and  abandoned.  It  is  dark  and  insani- 
tary. There  is  no  separation  of  different  classes  of  offenders,  nor  of  minors 
from  older  offenders.  Women  and  city  prisoners  are  held  in  the  same  room. 
The  sick  are  kept  with  the  well.  Even  contagious  cases  are  put  in  the  same 
room  with  well  men. 

AVhite  County  Jail,  inspected  April  13,  1915.  .  .  .  Condemned  20 
years  ago  as  unsafe;  dark  and  ill-ventilated  as  a  tomb;  a  firetrap  so 
dangerous  that  no  one  should  be  placed  in  it.  The  White  County  jail  is  a 
reproach  to  a  community. 

The  jail  is  barbarously  arranged,  is  unsafe,  is  so  constructed  that  the 
law  regulating  the  separation  of  prisoners  cannot  be  complied  with.  The 
women  are  practically  in  the  same  room  with  the  men  in  the  main  prison. 

18 


It  is  impossible  for  this  jail  to  be  made  a  fit  place  of  confinement  for  human 
beings. 

Will  County  Jail,  inspected  October  7,  1915. 

The  jail  rooms  are  dark  and  ill-ventilated.  The  cells  in  the  stone  block 
are  small,  dark  caves.  The  small  windows  do  not  admit  suflBclent  air  or 
light.      .      .      . 

The  old  part  of  the  jail  is  in  a  large,  stone  room  with  a  stone  cell  block 
in  the  middle.  The  cells  are  in  two  tiers,  eight  cells  on  a  tier.  The  windows 
are  level  with  the  second-tier  cells  and  the  cells  on  the  first  tier  are  wretch- 
edly ventilated.  The  cells  have  canvas  hammocks,  blankets  and  night 
buckets. 

This  section  of  the  jail  was  built  in  1861  and  looks  it.      .      .      . 

There  were  37  men  and  5  women  in  the  jail. 

Williamson  County  Jail,  inspected  April  17,  1915,  was  completed  a  year 
ago  at  a  cost  of  $35,000.     .      .      . 

The  plumbing  in  one  of  the  first-floor  sections  was  out  of  order,  and  a 
disgusting  pool  of  water  had  run  into  the  passage  around  the  cage. 

Except  for  the  defective  plumbing,  the  prison  was  in  good  order,  clean 
and  with  no  odors. 

The  prisoners  are  separated  according  to  race  and  not  according  to 
degree  of  crime.  On  the  first  floor,  one  section  is  given  to  the  Americans; 
in  the  other,  are  the  Italians.  In  one  section  of  the  second  floor  are  the 
negroes  and  in  the  other  are  the  women. 

Minors  are  confined  with  older  offenders. 

It  is  not  the  small  towns  and  counties  alone  that  neglect  the  prison- 
ers. The  horrors  of  the  Chicago  police  stations  and  the  Cook  County  Jail 
are  well  known.  As  to  conditions  in  this  greatest  of  western  cities,  the 
State  Inspector  reports : 

In  Chicago  we  find  the  worst  jails  in  the  State.  There  are  forty-five 
precinct  station  jails,  the  jail  in  the  detective  bureau,  the  Cook  County  Jail 
and  the  Bridewell  jails. 

Of  the  forty-six  city  jails  of  Chicago,  only  about  a  dozen  are  fit  for  any 
use  whatever.  Nineteen  are  underground.  Through  eleven  run  open  sewers. 
These  sewers  provide  the  toilet  facilities.  These  sewers  are  small  troughs  in 
the  back  of  the  cells,  flushed  by  running  water.  The  contents  of  each  cell 
pass  through  the  outer  cells.  Whatever  enters  this  sewer  in  one  cell  passes 
through  the  cells  beyond  it.  In  one  of  these  jails  the  men,  women,  insane  and 
the  prisoners'  food  are  held  in  one  row  and  the  sewer  runs  the  length  of  the 
row.  When  the  sewers  overflow  the  floors  are  flooded  with  the  contents  of 
the  sewers.  Rats  and  vermin  are  numerous.  The  walls  are  painted  black. 
The  men  sleep  on  planks.  If  there  are  more  than  two  men  in  a  cell,  they 
must  lie  on  the  floor  beside  the  open  sewer.  Sometimes  it  Is  necessary  to  put 
eight  or  ten  in  one  small  cell. 

There  were  127,000  arrests  made  in  the  city  of  Chicago  last  year,  and  a 
large  per  cent  of  this  number  passed  through  the  city  jails. 

Chief  Justice  Olson,  of  the  Chicago  Municipal  Court,  told  me  recently 
that  a  former  president  of  the  International  Prison  Congress  said,  after  an 
investigation  of  a  typical  Chicago  police  jail,  that  in  all  the  prison  history 
of  the  world  he  had  found  no  prisons  so  vile  with  the  exception  of  the  jails 
of  Turkey  of  the  twelfth  century. 

The  Cook  County  jail  is  one  of  the  most  insanitary  in  the  State.  It  vio- 
lates Chicago's  municipal  ordinance  that  there  shall  not  be  a  bakery  under- 
ground. Separation  of  different  classes  of  prisoners,  especially  of  different 
classes  of  boys,  is  impossible.     The  cells  are  mere  caves. 

At  the  Bridewell  there  are  two  modern  cell  houses  and  two  dark 
dungeons. 

Except  immediately  after  a  court  term,  eighty  per  cent  of  the  prisoners 
in  the  county  jails  of  the  State  outside  of  Cook  County  and  ninety  per  cent  of 
the  prisoners  in  the  Cook  County  jail  are  awaiting  trial. 

19 


All  the  prisoners  in  the  Chicago  police  jails  are  waiting  hearings.  These 
persons  are  declared  by  the  law  to  be  presumably  innocent,  and  they  are 
herded  together  in  vile  cells,  exposed  to  every  kind  of  moral  and  physical 
contagion.  They  are  held  in  idleness.  The  first  offenders  are  in  cells  with 
hardened  criminals.  Boys  are  with  old  men.  The  girl  witness  may  be  in  the 
same  cell  with  the  drunken  women  of  the  streets.  The  runaway  boy  may  be 
imprisoned  with  the  sexual  pervert.  The  physically  clean  are  compelled  to 
use  the  same  tubs,  often  the  same  towels  and  drinking  cups,  that  are  used  by 
those  suffering  from  the  most  loathsome  communicable  diseases.  They  may 
also  use  the  same  beds  and  bedding.  Light  and  air  are  denied  admission, 
but  vermin,  rats  and  seepage  enter  without  diflBculty. 

Such  is  the  picture  of  the  county  jails  of  Illinois  that  is  presented  in 
an  official  report  of  our  State  Charities  Commission.  Surely  no  further 
details  are  needed  to  show  that  the  attempt  to  improve  the  county  jails 
has  completely  failed. 

It  is  because  of  this  breakdowTi  in  the  attempts  to  secure  a  proper 
administration  of  the  jail  law  from  the  county  authorities  that  it  is  now 
proposed  to  have  the  state  take  over  the  custody  of  all  convicted  persons. 

These  are  two  classes  of  prisoners  in  the  county  jails: 

1.  Persons  held  awaiting  trial. 

2.  Sentenced  persons  who  have  been  tried  and  found  guilty. 
Taking  up  first  the  question  of  what  should  be  done  with  the  second 

class  of  prisoners,  it  is  apparent  that  they  not  only  should  have  a 
sanitary  place  of  confinement  but  that  they  should  be  employed  at  work 
which  will  aid  in  restoring  them  to  physical,  mental  and  moral  vigor. 
Idleness  is  only  a  new  source  of  demoralization.  At  present  the  county 
jails  all  over  this  state  and  all  over  this  country  are  demoralizing  by 
idleness  the  prisoners  that  are  sentenced  because  they  need  to  be 
reformed.  No  one  in  the  world  can  be  reformed  living  in  idleness  and 
bad  companionship,  in  a  dark  and  filthy  cell.  The  present  jail  system 
not  only  fails  to  reform,  it  actually  demoralizes  the  unfortunate  persons 
who  are  its  victims.  When  the  new  jail  law  of  1874  was  passed,  no 
substitute  for  the  county  jail  had  been  devised ;  and  it  was  not  then  so 
apparent  as  it  is  today  that  it  is  impassible  to  reform  the  one  hundred 
and  one  county  boards  that  are  responsible  for  local  jail  administration. 
It  is  clear  now  that  the  only  way  out  is  to  have  the  State  take  over 
the  custody  of  the  men  and  boys  who  have  violated  the  laws  of  the  State 
and  that  this  should  be  done  by  establishing  institutions  similar  to  work- 
house farms  which  will  take  the  men  who  now  serve  their  sentences  and 
"lay  out"  their  fines  in  idlen&ss  into  the  sunlight  and  open  air  where 
profitable  work  can  be  provided  for  them.  In  1913  the  National  Prison 
Association  recommended  the  abolition  of  the  county  jail  in  favor  of  the 
state-farm  system  at  the  Indianapolis  meeting  of  the  National  Confer- 
ence of  Charities  and  Correction.  In  I\lemphis,  in  1912,  the  Committee 
on  Corrections  adopted  the  following  among  other  recommendations : 

1.  State  control  of  all  minor  prisons. 

2.  Establishment  of  industrial  farms  for  convicted  misdemeanants. 

20 


3.  The  prohibition  of  the  use  of  the  jail  for  any  other  purpose  than 
that  of  temporary  detention. 

A  state  farm  colony  system  has,  therefore,  been  accepted  as  a  modem 
substitute  for  the  old  county  jail  system.    It  has  two  great  merits. 

1.  It  does  away  with  the  necessity  of  trying  to  compel  one  hundred 
and  one  local  authorities  to  obey  a  law  requiring  them  to  build  and 
maintain  proper  jails. 

2.  It  makes  possible  the  provision  of  an  adequate  farm  colony 
equipment,  so  that  health-giving,  character-building  work  can  be  pro- 
vided for  the  prisoners.  It  is  obviously  impossible  for  each  county  with 
a  small  number  of  prisoners  to  provide  a  farm  colony  for  them.  In  the 
same  way  it  was  impossible  for  each  county  to  provide  properly  for  its 
insane  or  feeble-minded  persons  who  were  in  need  of  custodial  care.  In 
the  case  of  the  insane,  the  state  long  ago  undertook  the  building  of 
properly  equipped  hospitals  where  medical  treatment  could  be  provided 
and  Illinois  now  has  a  state  law  wliich  compels  the  county  authorities 
to  turn  over  to  the  state  all  insane  persons  who  are  in  need  of  confine- 
ment. In  the  same  way  the  state  should  compel  the  county  authorities 
to  turn  over  to  the  care  of  the  state  all  persons  who  have  been  found 
guilty  of  violating  its  laws.  In  this  way,  and  in  this  way  only,  can 
hundreds  of  young  men  and  boys  be  saved  each  year  from  the  con- 
taminating influences  of  the  county  jail  system. 

The  state  farm  is  not  a  visionary  project.  The  neighboring  state  of 
Indiana  has  a  law  providing  for  such  a  farm,  and  Mr.  Butler,  of  the 
Indiana  State  Board  of  Charities,  convinced  those  who  were  fortunate 
enough  to  hear  him  speak  at  the  recent  National  Conference  of  Charities, 
of  the  valuable  results  of  this  Indiana  experiment.  The  Indiana  farm 
is  modeled  after  the  splendid  farm  in  Occaquan,  Virginia,  where  the 
United  States  government  began  the  great  experiment  of  taking  the  men 
who  had  been  condemned  to  idleness  in  the  House  of  Correction  in  the 
District  of  Columbia  out  to  a  place  where  proper  work  could  be  provided 
for  them. 

At  Occaquan  "the  prisoners  live  in  inexpensive  wooden  buildings 
which  they  themselves  erected.  These  buildings  are  so  open  to  sunlight 
and  fresh  air  that  the  men  practically  live  outdoors.  Their  employ- 
ment also  is  out  of  doors;  they  crush  stone,  make  brick,  operate  a  saw 
mill,  clear  and  cultivate  the  ground,  grow  fruits  and  garden  crops,  raise 
stock  and  carry  on  various  farm  industries."  Equally  well  known  is 
the  great  farm  at  Guelph,  where  prisoners  of  the  Canadian  province  of 
Ontario  live  and  learn  in  healthful  surroundings  and  wholesome  work; 
and  there  are  many  other  farm  colony  experiments  in  the  United  States 
that  have  gone  beyond  the  experimental  stage. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  next  session  of  the  Illinois  legislature  will 

21 


provide  in  the  year  1917  a  law  for  Illinois  similar  to  the  Indiana  law. 
This  cannot  be  done  too  soon.  Cook  County  is  trying  to  make  plans  for 
a  new  jail,  and  if  a  state  law  can  be  secured  that  will  take  all  com- 
mitted prisoners  out  of  this  greatest  of  county  jaiLs,  the  new  plans  can  be 
simplified. 

The  state  farm,  will,  in  time,  become  two  or  more  district  farms, 
just  as  the  state  hospital  for  the  insane  has  become  several  hospitals. 
But  the  state  instead  of  the  local  authorities  will  be  in  control,  and 
efficient  and  humane  administration  will  be  secured. 

Many  people  think  that  the  unfortunate  men  and  boys  in  our  jails 
are  not  worth  reclaiming.  "  Wliy  spend  money  on  drunks  and  'bums'  and 
thieves?"  is  the  question  asked  by  county  politicians.  But  if  one  of 
these  boys  was  your  son — and  everj-  one  of  them  is  somebody's  son — 
would  you  not  think  it  worth  while  to  try  to  make  a  decent  citizen  of 
him,  and  is  it  not  better  for  the  state?  Moreover,  the  farm  colony  is 
much  less  expensive  to  maintain  than  the  county  jail  system.  The  penal 
farm  as  a  substitute  for  the  county  jail  means  not  only  saving  the  young 
men  and  boys  who  are  allowed  to  sink  into  vice  and  to  become  hardened 
in  crime  in  our  foul  modern  jails,  but  it  means  saving  dollars  and  cents 
as  well.  i  '  f'li^j 

A  further  gain  that  will  result  from  the  employment  of  the  prisoners 
should. not  be  overlooked.  Under  the  present  system,  the  prisoners  are 
supported  in  idleness  and  their  families  are  supported  by  public  and 
private  charity.  With  the  establishment  of  such  a  farm  we  may  look 
forward  to  the  prisoners  earning  not  only  their  own  maintenance  but 
something  which  may  be  used  for  the  support  of  their  now  dependent 
families. 

The  state  farm  will  not  take  care  of  the  other  class  of  prisoners,  the 
persons  who  are  held  awaiting  trial.  But  these  persons  are  merely  under 
detention,  since  they  have  not  been  found  guilty  of  any  offense.  If  all 
convicted  prisoners  were  removed,  the  jail  would  cease  to  be  a  jail ;  it 
would  be  only  a  detention  house.  The  problem  will  be  greatly  simplified 
when  the  convicted  persons  are  removed.  The  cruelty  of  confining  in 
dark  and  loathsome  cells  untried  persons  who  may  be  found  to  be  eutirely 
innocent  will  be  apparent  even  to  the  most  indifferent  persons.  Year 
after  year,  thousands  of  men  and  boys  are  imprisoned  in  our  jails,  lose 
their  wages  and  finally  their  jobs,  and  suffer  all  that  human  beings  can 
suffer  through  being  deprived  of  their  liberty  and  locked  up  in  the  foul, 
dark  places  we  call  jails;  then  these  men  are  tried  and  the  great  majority 
of  them  are  found  "not  guilty'' — and  discharged.  The  wrongs  that  are 
suffered  by  innocent  persons  during  imprisonment  in  our  county  jails 
are  incalculable.  Moreover,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  they  suffer  only 
because  of  their  poverty.    Well-to-do  persons  are  released  on  bail,  go  on 

22 


with  their  work  and  live  at  home  with  their  families  pendinf!^  trial.  It 
is  hoped  that  the  ]>lan*  of  releasini?  under  probationary  supervision  per- 
sons who  cannot  afford  to  jjive  bail  will  be  gradually  adopted. 

The  first  step  to  be  taken,  however,  is  to  secure  an  appropriation  for 
a  state  farm.  When  the  sentenced  prisonei's  are  all  removed  from  the 
county  jail  and  only  untried  persons  remain  there,  it  should  be  easier 
to  secure  from  the  local  authorities  decent  treatment  for  such  persons. 
When  people  cease  to  think  of  the  county  jail  as  a  place  of  confinement 
for  those  who  have  done  wrong  and  are  compelled  to  look  at  it  as  a 
place  of  detention  for  persons  who  are  merely  under  suspicion  of  \vrong- 
doing,  then  the  real  jail  problem  can  be  dealt  with. 

When  a  state  farm  has  been  secured,  when  the  county  jail  has  become 
a  detention  house,  and  the  great  mass  of  persons  are  released  on  proba- 
tion pending  trial,  then,  and  not  till  then,  will  the  county  jail  problem 
be  solved.  Is  it  not  time  for  Illinois  to  follow  the  recommendation  of 
the  National  Prison  Association  and  the  National  Conference  of  Charities 
and  Correction,  and  abolish  its  "schools  of  crime?"  The  men  who  have 
violated  the  laws  of  the  state  should  be  the  prisoners  of  the  state  and 
should  not  be  left  to  be  educated  in  vice  and  crime  through  the  indiffer- 
ence and  neglect  of  the  county  authorities.  Will  you  not  help  in  the 
campaign  to  abolish  the  county  jail  by  establishing  a  state  farm  for 
misdemeanants  ? 


•See    The  Real  Jail   Problem,    published    by    the   Juvenile    Protective   Association. 
1915. 


23 


HOW  MEN  LIVE  AND  LEARN  IN  THE  COUNTY  JAILS 

OF  ILLINOIS 

They  live  in  idleness  at  the  expense  of  the  taxpayer. 
They  learn  vice  and  immorality  in  our  "schools  of  crime." 
They  become  educated  in  criminal  ways. 
They  degenerate  physically,  mentally,  morally. 


HELP  IN  THE  CAMPAIGN  TO  ABOLISH  THE  COUNTY 

JAILS  BY  ESTABLISHING  A  STATE  PENAL 

FARM  IN  ILLINOIS 


"We  seem  to  have  dedicated  an  institution  in  every  county  to  the 
propagation  of  idleness,  viciousness  and  crime.  .  .  .  Put  these  men  on 
penal  farms,  where  they  may  have  days  of  wholesome  work  and  nights  of 
refreshing  sleep;  where  they  may  have  every  incentive  to  live  a  clean  life; 
where  they  may  have  the  opportunity  to  realize  the  power  of  renewed  man- 
hood."—  Amos  W.  Butler,  former  President  of  the  American  Prison 
Association. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 


3  0112  002937198 


